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Signs victim in killing tied to Hilton tried to defend herself

BREVARD, N.C. - A woman killed while hiking in western North Carolina may have tried to defend herself from her attacker.

According to an autopsy, 84-year-old Irene Bryant died from multiple blows to her head but also suffered a broken left hand and forearm.

Bryant went missing in October after she and her husband, 80-year-old John Bryant, set out for a hike in the Pink Beds area north of Brevard. John Bryant is still missing and presumed dead.

No suspects have been arrested, but Transylvania County Sheriff David Mahoney has said he believes the man accused of kidnapping and killing University of Georgia graduate Meredith Emerson is also involved in the Bryant case.

Authorities have charged 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton with killing Emerson, 24, who disappeared Jan. 1 while hiking in the north Georgia mountains.

Like Emerson, Irene Bryant died from a blow to the head and her body was found near a hiking trail.

Investigators say Hilton kidnapped Emerson on the Freeman Trail near Blood Mountain on New Year's Day and killed her Jan. 4. Hilton led authorities to Emerson's body Jan. 7 in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area near Dawsonville, about 30 miles southwest of where she was last seen hiking.

Police also said Hilton is a suspect in the Dec. 3 disappearance of a woman whose body was found in the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida, and that he is under investigation in the death of a man whose body was found Dec. 6 in a Florida state park and a woman who disappeared near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2005.